Starship Asterisk*

Credit: NASA/CXC/Pontifical Catholic Univ of Chile/CMP Russell et al

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Want to take a trip to the center of the Milky Way? Check out a new immersive, ultra-high-definition visualization. This 360-movie offers an unparalleled opportunity to look around the center of the galaxy, from the vantage point of the central supermassive black hole, in any direction the user chooses.

By combining NASA Ames supercomputer simulations with data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, this visualization provides a new perspective of what is happening in and around the center of the Milky Way. It shows the effects of dozens of massive stellar giants with fierce winds blowing off their surfaces in the region a few light years away from the supermassive black hole known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A* for short).

These winds provide a buffet of material for the supermassive black hole to potentially feed upon. As in a previous visualization, the viewer can observe dense clumps of material streaming toward Sgr A*. These clumps formed when winds from the massive stars near Sgr A* collide. Along with watching the motion of these clumps, viewers can watch as relatively low-density gas falls toward Sgr A*. In this new visualization, the blue and cyan colors represent X-ray emission from hot gas, with temperatures of tens of millions of degrees; red shows moderately dense regions of cooler gas, with temperatures of tens of thousands of degrees; and yellow shows of the cooler gas with the highest densities. ...

• Monthly Notices of the RAS 464(4):4958 (Feb 2018) DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stw2584
• arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1607.01562 > 06 Jul 2016 (v1), 01 Aug 2017 (v3)

• Proceedings of the IAU 12(S329):443 (28 Jul 2017) DOI: 10.1017/S1743921317003131
• arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1707.08159 > 21 Jul 2017